For me the future looks bleak for desktop PC as we know it today, for a number of years I have been waiting eagerly for the "on line" hard drive to come into play and now it has. Microsoft has released SkyDive, this is an on line storage space where users can upload there documents, music and videos.To be honest I thought Google would be the first to offer such a service, but as far as I know they have yet to do so, this is good news for the guys at Microsoft to be at the forefront of this technology.
You log into SkyDive using your Live account, which is the same thing which you would use to log into your Hotmail accout, meaning that you dont have to remember any new username and password, this is why I really like the Windows Live services you can access them all from one username and password. If you do not have a Live account yet your really should jump on the bandwagon and go sign up.
SkyDive is a great online service once you log in you can upload and manage files just like you would on your hard drive and it seems to follow the same layout and icons as are used in Vista which is really cool. SkyDive also gives you the ability to share folders and make them public as well meaning everyone can assess what you published in that folder, all you have to do is send them a link to the folder or embed the folder into your w
ebsite. This solves a lot of trouble with overly large emails and also problems with people not being able to pickup the files.At the minute each user has been given 500 MB of space and seen as though SkyDive is still in its beta stages I can see this growing exponentially in the future, especially with the recent announcement that Hotmail are taking there inbox upto something like 4GB. File upload is very much dependent on your connection as you would expect so expect some waiting when trying to upload your favorite songs or video clips. However all is not glum, when waiting you can play a really cool bouncing ball game which is a nice addition to the site and makes uploading files less boring, however I find it a convenient break to go make a coffee.
This upload game is a really neat idea, I have also seen it put into action on the adidas site and makes waiting for long page loads much less of a hassle, however I would much prefer not the have the upload wait to start with.
3 comments:
I'm surprised I cannot find one person who has talked about, much less coded, a method to give "skydive" a drive letter. It was done with gmail. :\ In fact, forget hacks and cracks and 3rd party mess, the owners themselves should want to give you drive letter access. Wasn't it 7-10 years ago that X drive started up?
I am FULLY with you Nick!
Technically speaking Microsoft should be very capable of enabling this. Must be a business aspect. What about being afraid users will use it explosively and incurr too much cost?
Think Skydrive is merely a protectionist move against Google, but keeps being a Microsoft offering that is more concerned about preserving existing business models. On the other hand Google is equally afraid of hurting its shared storage business case (i.e. users are willing to pay more when storage is focused on pictures or e-mail than when its GB's only).
Strange thing is: I would be VERY happy to pay for storage but the price must be realistic.
My problem: I want regular backups and take along my data anywhere
Two solutions:
(1) I can buy an external drive at $100 for 400GB
(2) I can pay $ 500 ANNUALLY for 400GB with Google
The additional cost ($400 in the first year and $500 in all subsequent years) doesnot weigh up to the 'web experience'. Aside of that, an external drive is (still) MUCH faster.
As far as I know, you can use Gladinet for been able to assign a drive letter to SkyDrive .
I don't think MS or Google is going to open this door, not only for security, but because they sell ads in their sites. They want you to open the page in a browser.
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